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by renowned film maker Zhang Yimou ( 张艺谋 ), the event involved some 15,000 performers and musicians showcasing a vibrant, confident nation proud of its history and culture. The ceremony, comprising two parts entitled ‘Brilliant Civilization’ and ‘Glorious Era’, was rich in nationalist imagery but noticeably short on Communist ideology. Confucius played a far greater role than Chairman Mao or Karl Marx. One section, in a display of national unity, saw fifty-six children from China’s fifty-six national ethnic groups dressed in traditional costume carry the national
more substantial historical dimension into their work. 1 This chapter will briefly outline the main currents of thought in anthropology over this period, and examine the influence of two specific approaches that were to be fertile ground for historians: everyday life and symbolic anthropology, and ethnohistory. In the context of these approaches to history research and writing we will also examine the key concept of ‘ethnicity’. The concept of human culture is at the heart of anthropology. In the late nineteenth century Edward Burnett Tylor, often regarded as ‘the
liberal, minority-ethnic, and women leaders. The principal shows discussed are The West Wing, 24 , and Veep . Where it can seem that life imitates art, just as art imitates life, it transpires that such ‘imitation’ may not be so coincidental after all. It is instead part and parcel of how societies co-constitute new political realities. Very often, before progress is realised, it must be imagined. And television (as we saw in Chapter 4 ) can be a very powerful tool for imagining different and better worlds. In this instance, fictional television plots preceded
Labour victories from 1997 changed the picture, but the more middle-class south is still very much Conservative territory and the more working-class north, Labour. Ethnicity Ethnic minorities number some 4–5 million out of the total population, so are now an important voter group to be wooed and won over. This is especially true in areas where they are concentrated, like Southall in the south and Blackburn in the north. Traditionally, Labour has won some three-quarters of the ethnic vote and also has more ethnic minority MPs than the Conservatives, though the
. They are also often employed only part time, while others suffer discrimination if they wish to have children and still keep their jobs. On 24 July 2007, the Equal Opportunities Commission published a report into gender equality. It found that: only 20% of MPs are female; a ‘pensions’ gap leaves retired women with 40% less income than male contemporaries; women receive 38% less per hour than men when working part time and 17% if full time. Ethnicity Britain used to be a relatively homogenous country, the major division within society being that of social
This book looks at how the contract between the Chinese state and its citizens produces ready compliance and apparent support despite the problems of corruption, food scandals, air pollution and the constraints on personal freedom. It explores the ways in which China’s past is presented as both a mandate for political monopoly and a promise of a glorious future. It does so through the voice of China's own people, by exploring the lived experiences of a broad range of her citizens from across a wide range of socio-economic, rural, urban, ethnic and religious backgrounds. The volume aims to use an ethnographic approach to comprehend how Chinese people in the twenty-first century feel about key issues they face at crucial point in the nation's development.
Beginning film studies offers a critical introduction to this academic discipline for undergraduate (and other) readers coming to it for the first time. Written accessibly, it ranges across key topics, theories and approaches in film studies. For this new volume, the author has thoroughly updated the first edition, writing fresh case studies, tracking and evaluating recent developments in the study of film, and providing up-to-the-minute suggestions for further reading.
The book begins by considering film’s formal features (mise-en-scène, editing and sound) before moving outwards to discuss narrative, genre, authorship, the star, and film’s ideological engagement (its staging of class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity). Later chapters on film industries and on film consumption – where and how we watch movies (not least in the digital age) – reflect and assess the discipline’s recent geographical ‘turn’.
The book takes a global perspective, illustrating its arguments by reference to film cultures ranging from Hollywood to Bollywood, and from the French ‘New Wave’ to contemporary Hong Kong. Each chapter concludes with a case study, exploring such topics as sound in The Great Gatsby, narrative in Inception and ideology in Blue Is the Warmest Colour. The superhero movie is studied as a genre, and Jennifer Lawrence as a star. Beginning film studies is also interactive, with readers enabled throughout to reflect critically upon the field.
There were two forms of Jacobite exile: a physical one overseas and a spiritual one at home. In the aftermath of defeat in the British Isles waves of Jacobites fled into exile in Europe and the wider world and had there to make new lives for themselves. Some did so by becoming pirates who made a living by attacking the British merchant marine, but mainly the exiles became soldiers, entrepreneurs and merchants in the service of other European great powers. Tens of thousands of young men also chose voluntarily to leave Ireland (and to a lesser extent Scotland) to enlist in the Irish brigades in France and Spain. These multi-layered ethnic and geographic constituencies created an overseas Jacobite community that was loyal to the exiled Stuarts and sought to sustain and further the Jacobite cause through their networks and influence on the Continent and elsewhere. Back in the British Isles, the waning of the Jacobite community and the final collapse of the cause after 1759 dispersed the movement politically, but the hostility to the prevailing order the cause had engendered among them was transmitted by old Jacobites into new causes and further opposition to the Whig regime.
, a wholly elected second chamber would in practice mean that British public life was dominated even more than it is already by professional politicians’ (Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords 2000 : 106). Total reliance on election, it continued, would in practice be incompatible with ensuring that members had relevant experience and expertise. Nor, it noted, did most electoral systems ensure gender balance or appropriate representation for ethnic, religious, or other minorities. However, it felt that an elected element would be valuable for
range of socio-economic, rural, urban, ethnic and religious backgrounds. Though frequently portrayed and indeed depicting itself as a homogenous monolith, the PRC is full of contradictory and fascinating complexity. From its multi-ethnic population of hugely varied languages, races and religions to its contrasting landscapes of futuristic mega-cities and rural poverty, it is a land of enormously diverse people and places. The Politics of Everyday China explores some of the critical issues from the perspectives of the newly prosperous middle classes, ever